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1.2.10-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Book 1: Fantine Vol. 2 Chapter 10: The Man Wakes Up Or, The Man Awakens! (Denny) In which Valjean takes the silver, takes hiiis fliiiiiiight! …oh come on, you were thinking it too. Really though I love the chapter title here, because to me it feels like this is the first point in the story where Valjean is actually acting instead of just reacting. His considerations of opportunity and punishment may be silent and poorly constructed, but he clearly IS considering those actions, not just bouncing from sensation to sensation. I feel like he’s also considering murder, and pulling back not so much because the Bishop was kind to him— I’m not sure, even now, he really believes the Bishop WAS kind to him, he may not be able to believe that— but because the Bishop seems somehow beyond his reach, maybe beyond his right. Like, he’s angry at the world and feels a certain justification in stealing, maybe even in murder, but not murder of this particular person? Whatever the process, it’s sort of nice to see Valjean finally show up in his own present. Even if he’s not making the best of it right now… Commentary Gascon-en-exile On side note to start, “''l’admistration''" and "volé" are in this chapter italicized in the original, corresponding to quotes around "government" and "robbed" in at least one translation. Now Hugo’s doing it… The narrative calls Valjean’s contemplation of the theft a “''méditation hideuse''" and focuses intently on his physical position. I think it’s a deliberate comparison to spiritual contemplation, with contemplation of sin being its twisted counterpart. Of course, given Valjean’s current moral state we are to believe that this is the only type of meditation he can manage. I never understood why Valjean has the miner’s drill with him. Why would the prison have let released convicts keep the tools they used in prison labor? It’s even potentially dangerous as is obvious here - it’s like they made sure he was both armed and dangerous. Hooray for institutional competence! Smokefall Yep, I think this chapter is significant partly in that it’s when Jean Valjean starts feeling like a protagonist, and partly in that it’s the point at which a whole bunch of readers start getting earwormed. (does anyone else get a kick out of finding the sentences that are pretty directly translated into lyrics though? here we have they would bring at least two hundred francs, double what he had got for nineteen years labour. which becomes: the silver in my hand cost twice what I had earned in all those nineteen years…) Pilferingapples (reply to Smokefall) I wonder if anyone reading along with us here HASN’T heard the musical? Sincere question! I’d like to compare reactions with someone who isn’t hearing “at last, we see each other plain” every time the Valjean tag turns up alone. And I am absolutely doing a mental check of lyrics vs. text. I have to hand it to the show, I think the song for this part did a surprisingly good job of projecting the conflict between relief, gratitude, and anger that Valjean wrestles through in these few chapters. Columbina THIS IS A MUCH BETTER TITLE THAN ‘THE MAN AROUSED’ which just makes it sound like Valjean is super into silver and makes me think of certain kinkmeme prompts. (And also because of everything you said.) I think murder would definitely had to have crossed his mind, though not as much as in the next chapter, because he’s definitely planning things out, and that plan has to include “What if he wakes up?”